


Noel

by JjdoggieS



Series: All Is Calm, All Is Bright [14]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Allison Klaus and Five are the best wingpeople, Ben Is Clueless, Ben and Vanya are soft and cute, But Like Kind Of, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Cute, Engagement, F/M, Ficmas, Ficmas 2020, Fluff, Harcest Ficmas, Harcest Ficmas 2020, Inspired by Hallmark Christmas Movies, LMAO, Not Really lol, Snow, allison is the puppet master in this, and we love him for that, but he is still trying his best, but like for good, that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28145283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JjdoggieS/pseuds/JjdoggieS
Summary: Ben hadn't intended their moment to look like something straight out of a Hallmark movie, the glint of the ring, surrounded by loved ones, the coincidentally timed snowfall, but it certainly didn't hurt.Harcest Ficmas: Day 14 - Ring
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves/Vanya Hargreeves
Series: All Is Calm, All Is Bright [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034832
Kudos: 7
Collections: Harcest Ficmas 2020





	Noel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [light_loves_the_dark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/light_loves_the_dark/gifts).



When Ben had planned, for months, what he’d pictured to be a picture perfect proposal, he  _ hadn’t _ expected it to look like something straight out of a Hallmark movie. He’d been coordinating and planning with Klaus, Allison, and Five, since roughly mid-July, about how to best propose to Vanya. Conferring with his best friend, Vanya’s best friend, and their former movie star sister about a reasonable yet ‘magical’ and picturesque proposal that would be perfect for Vanya.

While Klaus had kept pushing for something bigger and flashier, Five continuously countered everything that Klaus suggested with reminders that Vanya  _ wouldn’t _ like something that would be big and flashy, and more importantly, draw a lot of attention from people that weren’t a Hargreeves. As it turned out, Klaus and Five were being basically and utterly useless, constantly contradicting each other, each one with valid and invalid points about what or what not to do.

Ben was relying on Allison for quite a bit of guidance in planning the proposal, since she’d likely had more experience seeing (and getting) marriage proposals than any of the other Hargreeves, and that she could give him a bit of a more of a sophisticated and feminine perspective than Klaus or Five would. 

Allison mentioned that Vanya, when they’d been younger, had mentioned that she thought that if she would ever get married, that she’d want to have a spring wedding. Their sister also adding that their wedding would take at least thirteen months to plan, hopefully about eighteen at the most, and within that thirteen to eighteen month planning period from December would be the prime time for a spring wedding.

With Allison’s insight, Ben set on proposing to Vanya in December, and moved onto figuring out which ring to get for Vanya. 

He’d tried to go on his own and pick one, but there were so many different bands, colors, cuts, and styles that Ben felt like he was utterly and hopelessly lost. So again, Ben consulted Allison, Klaus, and Five, this time together instead of separately, about which ring would be best for Vanya. With the help of his three siblings, Ben wrote on a note for himself to get a princess cut diamond ring with 14k gold baroque braid band in, ironically, a size 7 when he went to the jewelers a week or so later.

Ben honestly didn’t understand what most of that meant, and likely nor did Five or possibly Klaus, but Allison seemed pretty certain that she knew what she was talking about, but Ben was going to keep following his, far more knowledgeable about this kind of stuff, sister’s advice and get the specific ring she’d suggested. He’d been able to get the ring ordered by late July, as far as he could tell Vanya hadn’t suspected anything quite yet and was set to arrive back at the jeweler's by mid-September.

For the entirety of August and the first two weeks of September, Ben had a fairly consistent sense of peace. The ring had been ordered was on track to be ready on time, which was still nearly three months before he’d need it, and there wasn’t a lot for him to plan about a location just yet. (Allison had some people doing research about picturesque, and hopefully snowy in late December, locations that weren’t very well known, therefore would have a limited amount of people present.)

By the time that it rolled into the third week of September, Ben waited for a call from the jewelers any day saying that the ring was finished and had arrived. He waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and as the week dragged on, nearing the end of the week, Ben had honestly worried that  _ something _ had happened to the ring, and the jewelers weren’t calling him yet because they hadn’t known how to tell him that he wasn’t going to be getting the ring a month and a half after ordering it and would likely have to start all over again. But for Ben, on Friday morning, he  _ finally _ got the call from the jewelers, saying that his ring had arrived safely and was ready for him to pick it up whenever he could. 

And the same day that he’d  _ finally _ gotten the phone about the ring, was when Allison, after having a few discussions with her research people as well as with Five and Klaus, gave him her shortlist of national and international locations that would be perfect for their proposal.   
Paris   
Budapest   
New York City   
Prague   
Lisbon   
Reykjavik   
Seoul

While the list was including several major or well known cities around the world, Allison promised him that whichever ones he was more interested in that she would find some locations in and around the cities for him.

Honestly, sometimes it seemed like Allison was more excited about him and Vanya  _ hopefully _ getting engaged and married than he’d expected her to be. It was almost like she was more excited about it than he was sometimes, almost.

As he read and reread the list of cities that Allison had given him, there was something about Budapest that was almost calling to him. Ben told Allison that he was between Budapest and Reykjavik, which was true, both seemed like great locations, adding that he was more interested in Budapest than Reykjavik. Within a few hours of telling Allison, she gave him a very short list of some cities near Budapest that were meant to be less heavily visited.  
Gödöllo   
Ráckene   
Szentendre

Doing a bit of his own quick research between the three cities, Ben settled on Gödöllo, and after telling Allison, she promised him that she’d get something set up and all he needed to focus on between then and now was keeping the ring hidden from Vanya and figuring out what he was going to say. That seemed easy enough. Right?

Well, between late September and mid-November, Ben drafted nearly thirteen different notecards of things he thought he’d want to say. Each time one of his drafts managed to pass Ben’s own requirements, it would be shot down by either Allison, Klaus, Five, or some combination of the three rather quickly. 

Needless to say, but it was far from easy.

And when Allison announced to their family on December 1st, true to her promise back in September, that she had planned a family trip to Budapest, for nearly a full two weeks, from December 15th to the 27th, Ben still didn’t have a speech or whatever he was meant to have written, and was in a near panic.

By this point, as the date of their flight on one of Reginald’s private planes from his pointlessly excessive collection grew nearer, Vanya could definitely tell that something was stressing him out, but didn’t know what it was yet, thankfully. There had been an instance, because of Vanya’s obvious growing worry for him, that she’d suggested that maybe they stay home from the family trip, thinking that was what was stressing him out so much (which, to be fair, wasn’t that far off, but not for the reason she thought it was), which Ben quickly told Vanya that he was just a bit stressed about the 10 hour flight to Budapest, mentioning that he wasn’t sure how the eldritch would react to being at such a high altitude for so long.

In the remaining week between when Ben had lied to Vanya about why he was so stressed about their upcoming trip and  _ actually _ leaving for their trip, Vanya, being the absolute sweetheart she was, had found several remedies that would hopefully keep the eldritch from getting  _ too _ upset during their flight. With each thing or idea that Vanya gave him, trying to be as helpful as she could be, Ben felt a bit more guilty for lying to her, but he just kept reminding himself that it was all for a good reason and something that she’d  _ hopefully  _ like and appreciate.

On the early Tuesday morning of their flight, Five drove one of the cars they were taking to the airport hanger that none of them had known, or at least remembered, Reginald having while Allison drove the other. Five’s car had Vanya in the passenger seat and Ben and Klaus in the back with about a third of their total luggage in the trunk, while Allison’s car had Luther in the passenger’s seat and Diego in the back with the remaining two thirds of their luggage in the back seat with Diego and in the trunk. Ben kept a near constant hold on the ring box in his pocket, making sure that the  _ one thing _ that he could not lose, didn’t get lost or forgotten. 

A mere hour drive later, just as the sun began cracking over the horizon, Five’s car, which had been following Allison’s, pulled into the airport hanger’s parking lot, nearing the one fairly big airplane, especially for seven people, that had been pulled out of storage with six people standing near it waiting for them. Once their cars parked, four of the people that had been waiting for them, who’d introduced themselves as their flight attendants, Audrey, Leah, Tyler, and Parker, started pulling their luggage from their cars and storing them in the plane’s storage. While Audrey, Lean, Tyler, and Parker stored all their luggage (which to be fair was mostly Allison and Klaus’s), the remaining two people, Hayden and Ryder, introduced themselves as their pilots. 

Allison lead them onto their airplane, most of them having either never being on an airplane before, or not having been on one in nearly two decades, and settled into one of the seats near the front, having Luther sit in the chair across from her, before telling the rest of her siblings that they could sit where ever they wanted when they all looked either unsure or flat out confused.

Klaus made a beeline for the very back of the plane, pulling Diego with him, while Five sat in one of the seats nearest to one of the plane’s emergency exits. Leaving most of the middle of the airplane for Ben and Vanya. Much like Allison had with Luther, Ben had Vanya pick a seat, then settled into the one across from her. 

Within ten minutes of the Hargreeves siblings settling, or being forced, into their seats, the airplane’s engines rumbled and roared to life, shaking the plane’s cabin. Apparently, like Ben had lied about, the eldritch had sensed that they were about to be going somewhere they did  _ not _ want to go, started churning and writhing in his stomach. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to deal with the pain that the eldritch were giving him as silently as possible, hoping it would pass soon enough and that they would just deal with it.

While Ben had his eyes scrunched shut, there was a calm pair of taps on his hand, and when he cracked open his eyes, Ben saw that Vanya had pulled a small box and a can from the backpack she’d brought and was handing them to him. Ben reached out and took the offered box and can, giving Vanya a quick ‘Thanks.’ as he did, upon closer inspection realizing it was a can of ginger ale and a box of some air sickness medication. Not expecting it to  _ actually work  _ on the eldritch, but nevertheless Ben took two of the air sickness medication’s tablets, swallowing them down with small sips of the ginger ale. 

He didn’t feel any effect from the medication, although the small amount of ginger ale had somehow soothed the eldritch enough that they weren’t hurting Ben anymore. And before he’d even felt the slightest bit drowsy, Ben had fallen asleep by the time they were in the air.

It wasn’t until about seven hours into their flight that Ben woke up again, barely being able to see through bleary eyes that Vanya was still seated across from him, reading a book that he couldn’t quite make out the title of. “Oh, you’re awake.” Vanya noted quietly, sliding a bookmark into whatever she’d been reading, turning her full attention to Ben, “How are you feeling?”

“Um, good.” Ben told her, “A lot better now actually, thanks.”

The remaining three hours of their flight was filled with two renditions of Klaus reenacting some of the ‘most entertaining’ dreams he’d had that he could remember, Allison giving Klaus some pointers on his projection and enunciation, while Five and Diego continuously told them both, but mostly directed at Klaus, to shut up. Ben was honestly surprised that Vanya seemed to have been able to get through a good portion of the book she’d been reading, which by now had been slipped back into her bag, with all the fairly typical amount of Hargreeves™ noise. And by the time that the pilots, thankfully, told them that they would be landing soon and needed to take their seats and fasten their seatbelts once more, Ben was  _ nearly _ at the end of his rope.

Once their airplane landed, and the Hargreeves siblings went through Hungary's international customs, the remainder of the day was spent getting to their rental house and picking up some dinner for the night, considering that while for the Hargreeves it felt like it was about 4 pm, it was already 11 pm in Budapest. Once they’d landed in Budapest, Ben’s nerves returned like a punch in the gut, and Ben had decided that he needed to propose to Vanya the next day, or maybe the day after depending on how bad their jet lag was, just so he didn’t have to worry about it anymore. 

When he asked Allison, considering that she’d planned their whole trip, if it would be possible for them to do  _ it _ in the next day or two, and she’d told him that they could definitely fit it in sometime in the next day or two. A restless night of sleep later, from the dreadful mix of jumping ahead seven hours and the ball of anxiety that sat in his gut keeping him awake the whole night.

Yet despite a night of no sleep, Ben was feeling wide awake and chock full of nerves, double and triple checking that he still had the ring box  _ and _ that the ring was in the box throughout the day. Allison, as the leader of their trip, told them that they were going for a scenic hike after lunch the next day; giving Ben a look for him to know that he  _ needed _ to bring the ring with them.

Their scenic hike through a hilly, lightly wooded area, like Allison had told him beforehand that it would be, was absolutely beautiful and something that the better of the cheesy romantic Hallmark Christmas movies would have the scene that the hopeless romantic girl and moody bad boy would finally get together in. As they walked towards a clearing, Allison called for Ben to come up to the front so she could ‘get his advice on something’ so she could  _ really tell him _ that the top of the hill up ahead of them would be the perfect spot.

Just as they reached the clearing, little snowflakes started fluttering from the sky, even though the sun was still shining above them. Ben lead Vanya up to the very top of the hill while Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, and Five remained further down the hill, not inconspicuous in the slightest.

It wasn’t until Ben and Vanya were stood at the top of the hill, with their siblings all knowing by now what was about to happen, as the snowflakes thickened and grew into bigger flakes, that Ben realized he hadn’t ever figured out exactly what he’d wanted to say. But for once, rather than let his stress and anxiety for everything to go perfectly, Ben kept himself calm and reminded himself that Vanya would rather hear something from the heart, than something that was overly rehearsed and seemingly devoid of emotion.

So, rather than worrying about not having the perfect speech, Ben utilized the beautiful scenery around them, pulling the box from his pocket with one hand, pulling it open with the other as he dropped to one knee in the snow, watching as Vanya’s eyes went wide and a look of surprise spread across her features before he said a word. But still, Ben asked the obligatory question at this point, his heart pounding out of his chest as he did, “Vanya, I love you with all my heart, and I always have since we were ten and I will until the end of time.” Ben took the steading breath he  _ needed _ so he could finish asking the question before crying, “Vanya Hargreeves, will you marry me?”

Vanya breathlessly replied, “Yes.” with a nod. Ben quickly slipped the ring onto Vanya’s left hand’s ring finger, before passionately kissing her. Ben could feel the grin that had slipped on to his face as their siblings, Klaus in particular, loudly cheered as well as telling them to ‘get a room’ which was quickly followed but someone smacking someone else in the head. It was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Update survey if you're interested -> https://forms.gle/kj4UBqMeUThavmnx6


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